Reducing Behavioral Health Readmissions: Strategies and Lessons Learned
Behavioral healthcare cuts both ways for payers and providers. Shortages of qualified expertise makes filling positions difficult to impossible, while the need for services grows on many fronts and in many populations. The Daily Briefing How 2 health systems are rethinking mental health care for a value-based world, from the Advisory Board, reinforces the connections between behavioral and physical health. This identifies tangible targets, like reducing behavioral health readmissions, for improving patient care and institutional financial health.
Growing Turnover Rates Wreck Healthcare Budgets
Healthcare is a labor-driven service that depends on the talent and skills of every staff member, from the C-suite to nurses. Finding and keeping this talent is paramount to running a cost-effective organization that provides exceptional care was an observation from an article by Mackenzie Bean by Becker Hospital Review. Growing turnover rates significantly impact profitability.
Shoveling Money Down Growing Behavioral Health Gaps?
Calculating future expenses stresses all managers and directors. In the ever-changing world of healthcare, making the time to accurately budget costs can cause headaches, nausea, dizziness, and palpitations. (Please do not operation heavy machinery while thinking about budgets.) Estimating the financial impact of the growing behavioral health gaps may be the final straw.
Today’s blog gathers data points from recent studies, reports, and presentations from around the healthcare industry and offers a starting point for your various budget models. Make the time to verify your models are sporting the most current data. Challenge your assumptions, because margins are thin and getting thinner.
Lacking Mental Health Expertise Lands 2nd On Scarcity List Two Years Running
Payers and providers spend significant energy recruiting and retaining all levels of behavioral health professionals. The access to psychiatrists acts as the ‘canary in a coal mine’ signalling the impending challenges. Lacking mental health expertise hits organizations at a time of increasing use spurred on by value-based care.
Who Decides Medical Necessity For Mental Health? Massachusetts State Bill Challenges Notion
Massachusetts bill (H 1070/S 1093) adds to the definition of “medically necessary services” and challenges the notion of who decides medical necessity. Medical necessity criteria sits at the center of case and claim determinations. Laws, policies, and procedures evolve through time and the various administrations both locally and nationally.
Why Behavioral Health Claims Skyrocket: Opioid Use Lead Cause
Behavioral health claims skyrocket for any number and combination of factors. Behavioral health care will increase in cost and utilization with a number of factors driving this, including the:
Top (and Bottom) 10 States For Behavioral Health Staff Shortages
The greatest need for mental health professionals are found in the more populated east coast and remote northern states. Large populations and rural settings significantly impact behavioral health staff shortages. The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) released the most current data. The table shows the 10 states with the worst behavioral health professions clinical coverage, the national average, and the 10 states with the best BH coverage.
Challenges of Developing Workers Compensation Treatment Guidelines
Workers compensation treatment guidelines can help prevent unnecessary medical procedures and the prescribing of potentially harmful medications. However, they are not all the same, nor are they without challenges. Understanding a jurisdiction’s strengths/weaknesses, taking a strategic approach to developing guidelines, and using common sense can lead to better outcomes for injured workers—and, ultimately, lower costs for payers.
Not Waiting For Capitol Hill: Health System Leaders Move Ahead
Despite industry uncertainty about the fate of healthcare under the new administration and Republican Congress, health system leaders move ahead and are preparing for the future. A recent Premier Inc. survey show the target areas for improvements within their systems. The results signal growth concerns and why the leaders will not wait for Capitol Hill results.
Update: Payer Efforts Against Opioid Epidemic
According to the CDC, drug overdoses are the leading cause of accidental death in the United States. Of the overdose deaths that occurred in 2015, 63 percent involved an opioid. Payer options for managing efforts against opioid overuse range from monitoring population data to working with provider networks.
